Panthers Walk By Wild

     The Florida Panthers beat the Minnesota Wild 5-3 on Saturday night at FLA Live Arena. The Panthers played just their second home game in an 11-game stretch. The Panthers has won four of their last five contests and now have a season-high point streak of five games with a 4-0-1 record. 

     Florida(23-20-5) got out to a 1-0 lead with 13 seconds left in the first period. Anton Lundell slipped the puck in from the top of the crease for his seventh goal of the season. Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart were credited with assists on the play. 

     In the second period, Eetu Luostarinen made it 2-0 on an unassisted goal at the 1:40 mark. Minnesota(25-16-4) closed it to 2-1 with a power-play goal from Matt Boldy at 8:56. The Cats put it back to a two-goal margin with 28 seconds remaining in the second on a power-play tally by Carter Verhaeghe. 

     The Wild cut it to 3-2 at 4:37 with the man advantage as Joel Eriksson Ek found the net. The Panthers answered back as Gustav Forsling scored his seventh goal of the campaign at the 7:51 mark. Jared Spurgeon helped Minnesota make it 4-3 with 1:26 to go in the third. Reinhart placed his 15th goal this season into an empty net with 39 seconds left in the game.